The Secret Life of Hoarders..a book

Marie5656

Well-known Member
Location
Batavia, NY
My guilty pleasure has been watching that show, Hoarders on TV. No new episodes in years, but lots of reruns. Anyway, one guy from the show, Matt Paxton..who was the clean up guy, wrote a book a few years ago titled "The Secret Life of Hoarders". Speaks of his work as a cleaner, hauler, both on the show and in is real life job of doing it.
He speaks with compassions, and trys to give a sense of understanding of this disorder, which has recently been classified as a mental health issue, in the OCD spectrum. Many times the hoarding, or unwillingness to throw things out, comes from a tragic, or emotionally charged event in a persons life. Be it a history of abuse, or abandonment, or in some cases, the loss of a loved one, usually a spouse or child.
I just got the book today, and have just read a chapter or two. But I think I will like it.
 

I'm strangely attracted to that show, too. My grandmother was a hoarder, but at least she was a neat and sanitary one.

I know that if I gave myself free reign, I'd never get rid of anything. I fight the tendency.

I will have to look for that book.

For some reason, I could not post a picture of the cover. But I found it on Amazon. It was released in 2011. Just remember The Secret Life of Hoarders by Matt Paxton He does speak of the difference between the hoarders like your grandma, and the messy unsanitary ones.
 

I remember watching that show several times, I did feel sorry for those folks and the animals that some of them hoarded. It amazed me that someone could live in such unhealthy conditions, and have the floors in each room so cluttered that a narrow path was hardly recognizable. But when family tried to intervene, they were in denial and it was obviously an emotional or mental disorder that was feeding their obsession.
 
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I have only just read the first chapter so far, and Matt does go into the emotional and psychological things behind hoarding. As a person who has always been interested in dealing with psychological issues (in my past life I was a Social Worker) so this kind of stuff fascinates me.
 
There is a definite line between hoarding things of some perceived value and the kind of hoarding that many of the show's subjects do......three feet of garbage, human and animal feces, dead cats and dogs, food containers, bottles of urine, etc. I can't even imagine the level of mental illness that leads to living in that kind of squalor and thinking it's normal.

As I said, my grandmother was a hoarder. She bought only new things; she was a shop-a-holic and couldn't resist a "bargain". If she saw a pressure cooker on sale at what she though was a can't-resist price, she bought it. It didn't matter that there were four pressure cookers still sealed in their boxes sitting in a closet at home, she had to buy it. I can't tell you how many really nice sets of punch bowls she had in the attic, brand new and unused. There were six plastic miniature grandfather clocks. There were......well, you get the picture. Everything brand new from a top department store.

Her older sister, though, although she also neatly stacked the boxes of her hoard and actually put nicely laundered and starched doilies on top of the boxes, saved just about everything she ever owned (thank goodness, not dead cats, bodily fluids or food....). There were boxes of every comb and brush and toothbrush she had ever had, neatly tied-up stacks of 50 years of phone books, magazines, newspapers. There were old sheets and towels and, yes, doilies, and clothing....all washed, ironed and neatly folded and sealed in boxes. There were "corridors" through her house with boxes on either side piled head-high.
 
I recently dealt with this firsthand. My best friend was a hoarder and I had know idea. I found out when she and her husband landed in a nursing home and I went to their home to get some personal items for them. It really was a shock and so well hidden for years.
 
I guess one of Rick's aunts was a bad horder, but like your grandma @jujube . This was before Rick and I met. Auntie lived in Arizona. When her husband died, Rick and his mom went down to help her get things in the house in order. They had no IDEA of what she had. With her it was clothes. Racks and Racks of clothes. I guess, if she found an outfit she liked, she would buy one in every color. Same with shoes. Many still had the tags on and obviously had never been worn.
 


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